There’s been way too many cookies, both online and IRL. 12-4: Pasta with Mushrooms is a relatively healthier and easy dinner option to help ease you into post-holiday life (or just an idea for dinner tonight).

I don’t know about you, but these kind of meals with a bit of protein (chicken, fish, etc.) is pretty much our go-to for dinner these days. Maybe I’ve been cooking in schools too long already–my mind instantly goes to two veg-fruit/one protein/one grain for meal planning. I suppose there are worse habits.

I just noticed that they show rotini in the cover picture and spaghetti in the second picture. Anyway, this is something I would have NOT eaten as a kid (mushrooms…blechhh), but in my older age (because 30 is ancient), I’m learning to appreciate them more.

Ingredients. I chose farfalle for my pasta, but they’re right, any pasta would do. If i did it again, I might pick a longer pasta like linguini or fettuccini, I think that works better with this kind of dish.

Extremely exciting picture of salt in the bottom of a pot of water. I suppose this is me telling you to salt your water before you cook pasta–it makes it taste better.

Slicing my shrooms. I pride myself on thin mushroom slices.

Prepped veggies, waiting for the pan. There’s a whole thing about how “mushrooms aren’t veggies”, but we’re going with the idea that they are, for simplicity’s sake. It’s like the “tomato is a fruit” thing. The Internet makes us all rather pedantic (myself included).

Sautéed mushrooms and onions–they cook down significantly after a while, so don’t be intimidated when you first cut them up.

If you started your water first, and keep your pasta going while you’re cooking your veggies, it should all finish up around the same time.

Stirring in the sour cream.

Rinsing my pasta with cold water after pulling it off the stove (stops the cooking process so your pasta doesn’t get mushy). After this, I’ll toss it with a bit of canola oil so the extra plain pasta I store in the fridge doesn’t stick together. As long as you don’t go crazy with it, you’ll never notice it on your final pasta dish.

Mixing the pasta and sauce/mushrooms together. You could thin it with a bit of olive oil, melted butter, milk, or even water if you think it’s too thick.

Final product–it’s basically a vegetarian version of beef stroganoff. I used to hate stroganoff (my mom made a turkey version about once a week most of my childhood), but as I’ve learned to appreciate mushrooms, stroganoff has grown on me as well. Even the turkey version. 🙂